Flowers from Daddy

Justin brought home flowers for both his girls on Friday! Such a sweet surprise...I didn't get any pictures of mine, but here's Felicity, all smiles showing off her bright blooms. :-)

Perfect day spent outside

We are L-O-V-I-N-G this weather. The day after Fe's birthday, we spent the entire day outside. It was wonderful. We packed up a picnic and tried out a new park in McKinney.

It is so fun for the little ones (and the parents), when they are free to run wild in nature!

Then we headed back home for our neighborhood classic car show, where I had to work at the hot dog stand. I am by no means really interested in cars...I know absolutely nothing about them, but it was so fun! Really, just being out walking around, catching up with friends, looking at all the cute old men polishing their prized rides...some of them even had these precious little "scenes" set up. Like the one below has the fake dog peeing on the tire and on the other side he has a tray attached with all his drive-in food.

I liked this little vingette too -- with the blanket and picnic basket attached to the back. I'm imagining they are dressed in their best and out for their Sunday drive...

I must admit, admiring these cars made me long to live in some of these eras where life just seemed simple and sweet.

Then back home to enjoy the view from our front porch with a glass of wine!

Grandpa Moss, L-view...and a song

Justin's grandpa, Jack Moss, passed away a few weeks ago. He had battled cancer and liver failure when the Lord finally called him home. He was a true man of faith who lived his life well and left an incredible legacy. Grandpa Moss will be greatly missed.

Justin traveled to Florida for the funeral this past weekend, and although I sent him with a camera, alas, he returned with no photos. While he was there Felicity and I went to Longview so I could help Ryan pack for college (he leaves for SCAD this Friday) and to celebrate my parents' birthdays.

At the birthday dinner...

While there, my brother, Ryan and I recorded a version of the worship song, "How He Loves Me". Ryan arranged, produced and recorded all the music and he and I both did the vocals. He is super talented and I've wanted to record something with him for a long time. I'm so glad we got the chance to hang out before he left. I love doing stuff like this, but don't seem to get the chance very often. We both were in our creative element, so to speak, so if you are looking for an explanation of the attire - that's it. :-) We had the best time.

Ry, you are my creative hero. Thanks for bringing so much beauty to our lives. I can't wait to see the masterpieces you will continue to create. Thank you for always inspiring and encouraging me. I love you so much.

Sweet summertime fun

To say that it is hot would be a huge understatement. It has been in the triple digits for weeks. But I'm trying to be thankful for warm weather (note to self: remember these days when it is bitter cold!) and for AC! I've been a little sparse with my updates this summer, so here's a recap of how we've been spending our days together...

Cooking with mommy --

Swimming --

(still loves sticking her head underwater...)

Piggyback rides with Mommy --

Push ups on Daddy's back (Justin's new workout) --

Art projects --

Outside art projects = sidewalk chalk + one hot little ragamuffin

Playing outside

Playing babies

Watching our Felicity's favorite show - Yo Gabba Gabba

Reading

Hope you are enjoying your summertime too...happy hot summer days!

1,460 days

That is how long we have been married (on April 21)! We celebrated our 4 year anniversary by taking our first trip without Felicity and headed to Fredericksburg. I really slacked off on taking pictures while we were there. In fact, this one below is the only one I have of the two of us together when we hiked up to the top of Enchanted Rock.

After climbing down we thought we'd do the couple mile trek around the park. We hadn't gotten very far when we saw this:

People, do you see what's going on here? Let's take a closer look, shall we?

A SNAKE - ATTACKING AND EATING A LIVE FROG. We stumbled upon this when we noticed these guys peering over this water and then we saw what they were gawking at. Then these fools   proceeded to pick up the snake, like they were Bear Grylls or something. Not cool. We continued along the trail until we got to a really shallow body of water that we were going to have to cross and I spotted another snake in there...needless to say, I was out of there. Show me the shopping and wineries, please!

I didn't really take any other pictures of our adventures, but it was such a sweet and much needed break. I told Justin what I was looking forward to most was eating a meal, staying seated throughout the whole thing and not having to cut up tons of food into tiny little bites. It's funny how your perspective changes and what you find relaxing once you have kids. Thank you sweetheart for a wonderful vacation and lots of warm memories!

The Black Plague

Talk about a bad two days. The dreaded stomach virus paid us a nasty visit this weekend and boy, was it rough. Friday night we went out to dinner and all was well. Saturday morning was when the storm broke. It all started when Justin went in to pick Felicity up from her crib when she woke up and the poor little thing was covered in throw up. We felt so bad, but we had no idea. She hadn't made any sounds after we put her to bed, so we figured everything was fine. I thought maybe she had just overeaten the night before since she had quite a lot for dinner and had tried some new foods for the first time....so we got her cleaned up, I nursed her and fed her breakfast as usual. That's when the real drama began. It wasn't long after that until she started constant rounds of vomiting and diarrhea. A Saturday full of that is just not what you want. We finally took her the Pediatric After Hours Clinic that evening as she wasn't keeping anything down and we were afraid she was getting dehydrated. A large deductible payment later, we were given the strict medical advice to go home and just "wait it out." I guess we should have known, but being first time parents, we didn't really know what else to do.

Pitiful, isn't she?...but sort of sweet at the same time.

(We were trying to get her to stay still and watch Sesame Street, which lasted all of about 5 seconds. We're not into staying still these days.)

After one last vomit session she went to bed Saturday night, and thankfully she was fine the next day. I won't go into details about my bout with the bug, but the next morning my stomach started to feel a little uneasy. "Surely not me too," I thought. Ha! That evil thing took hold of me before I even knew what hit me. I can honestly say I have not been that sick in a very, very long time. I seriously thought I was going to have to go to the ER and get an IV of fluids. I could not keep anything down.

Total vomit count? Justin threw up once, Fe topped out at six times and I lost count somewhere after I hit 25 times...needless to say, we are very glad that it has left our house! We're still taking it easy around here, especially with the diet, but so far, so good. I guess the only positive thing that came out of it was that I lost seven pounds in one day. Now to the mounds of stinky laundry and 'Lysoling' the place...

Cleveland family inventions

For the past few mornings, I have been in true bliss. I've been on a mission to get myself up and dressed before Felicity wakes up. If I don't, I often find that I don't get ready until late in the day or sometimes, sadly enough, not at all. Nothing makes me feel more...hmm...what's the word...disgusting?? than when Justin comes home and I look the exact same way I did when he left at 7 a.m. Ughh. But, I digress. This is what has been making me so happy and what you must try!

When you make your pot of coffee, sprinkle a bit of each of these right over the coffee grounds.

It will look something like this:

I don't measure, but I don't think you can really mess it up. I probably put about twice as much cinnamon as I do nutmeg and cloves. I have a bean grinder on my pot, but I haven't been using it as much lately. If you're grinding fresh beans, then I would put the spices in the filter and then the fresh grounds will mix when they fall down.

Then you will be able to enjoy homemade Christmas coffee like this: (and as a side note, your house will smell amazing.)

I highly suggest making coffee the night before and setting the timer, if you have one. It only takes maybe two extra minutes. I usually do it when I'm cooking dinner, waiting for something to finish or when Justin is doing the dishes after dinner. Then you can wake up the next morning and sleepily follow the amazing scent down the hallway to the fresh pot of hot Christmas coffee. Ahhh...

And yes, I am still nursing and yes, I'm still drinking coffee. Please don't judge me! I've switched to the 1/2 caff version, but I just can't cut it out completely. It's what gets me going in the mornings. Well, that and walking into see this little face:

So, I've been thrilled with my new "invention" and then noticed last night, that my darling husband has an interesting invention of his own.

Toe stirrups:

He says it keeps his feet warm. I really don't know what else to say about them. I think they speak for themselves.

So, feel free to take your pick, as a gift from our family to yours, if you want to implement either of our inventions into your home this winter. Merry Christmas!

Party on, Wayne

As I mentioned, I finally got my hair cut. I still feel like I don't have a great pic of it, but here's a few recent shots:

Overall, I really like it. The bangs were a total surprise. It takes a bit more work, but I think its a nice change and something I don't mind for the cooler weather. I think the bangs might cause major frustration during the hot, humid summer, but who knows if I'll even have them by then. Anyway, there is one downside to this hair cut...and my sweet husband definitely called it out.

Now, let me preface this by saying that Justin does really like my haircut; however, the other night when it was not fixed and had just air dried into a total frizz mess, he looked me and said, "You look sort of like Dana Carvey."

"Who's she?" I asked. Well, as it turns out - she is actually a he...this attractive fellow:

Yes, that is Garth from Wayne's World.

I have to say, at the time he made that comment, I absolutely agreed with him. So, in the words of Garth, "Party on, Wayne."